Is that the reason I have a
substance abuse problem?
by Jef Gazley, M.S., LMFT
Treatment options and tips on how to become drug and alcohol free

When most people think of addiction they think of physical addiction, but for our purposes I want to broaden that definition a bit.  Addiction is any behavior or action that is all compulsive and aimed towards making feelings less painful or stopping the realization of a feeling altogether.  It eventually has self-destructive ramifications, but people continue to demonstrate addictive behaviors despite negative consequences.  So, addiction is much more than just the physical abuse of a substance. It can include any activity that has self-destructive consequences over time.
 
We are going to be discussing physical addiction, emotional addiction, and compulsions in general.  In some ways these are distinctly different things and in some ways, they are very much the same.  The main thing I want to look at is balance. 

To be able to talk about chemical dependence, it is essential to know how the brain and body work, so I am going to give a brief thumbnail sketch.  When there is a threat to the organism the body goes into flight, fight or freeze in response to messages from the back part of the brain, the reptilian brain.  A tremendously complex set of processes happens instantaneously.  The heartbeat increases, the pupils dilate so that one can see any kind of threat on the outside in the periphery, the hands tend to sweat, and the muscles become taut and ready for action.  Insulin and adrenalin pump into the system and all non essential functioning is put on the back burner.  If a person needs to eat, the body won’t notice the hunger if someone is pointing a gun at them. The body goes into fight or flight immediately. Either a person is going to run, try to take the gun away or freeze at that moment.  The body essentially goes into a hyper alert mode.  This is a rather primitive process that happens in the back of the brain and had tremendous beneficial results for primitive man.

 A person can not possibly be in this emergency state for any prolonged period of time and remain healthy. They are ready for action but the body is out of balance.  Eventually it has to come down to homeostasis, or balance, again.  Everything healthy has a sense of balance even if that balance is dynamic like breathing.  Breathing in and breathing out. One goes out of balance and back into balance. This is the essence of Newton’s Law. “What goes up must come down in an equal and opposite reaction.”
 
Often in today’s environment, people go into flight, fight or freeze, but they do not fully reestablish homeostasis.  This leaves the body in a pattern of generalized anxiety as if it is expecting the next stress to come.  I have already mentioned the body wanting homeostasis or balance.  There is a really quick way for people to feel as if they have regained balance and that is by drinking alcohol.  The modern world is so stressful that it leaves people geared and ready to use chemicals often. Stress has become a chronic condition.

Think of driving to California from Arizona. It is a life or death situation all the way there, but people don’t consciously realize it.  However, the muscles in the shoulder and neck are stressed when they finally arrive in California.  They are anxious and out of balance, their bodies want to return to homeostasis. That is only normal and natural.

Three Brains

The only way to understand alcohol and drug addiction or addiction in general is to understand physiology.  We have been discussing the reptilian response, which is the flight, fight, or freeze response that comes from the back of the brain or the third brain. Most people think we only have one brain, yet actually there are three. It is a Reptilian Brain in the Medulla Oblongata, which is located at the base of the head in the back at the top of the neck.  This type of brain is something humans share with reptiles. It is instinctual. A heart beats because of this particular brain.  Consciously one can’t tell that part of the brain to slow down and get any appreciable result. The major dynamic of addiction comes from the reptilian part of the brain.

The brain that most people are aware of is the human brain. The human brain thinks with rational thought such as, one plus one equals two. The amazing “just say no” policy on drugs was aimed at this part of the brain. This concept has not worked very well because the people that came up with the plan did not know a whole lot about human beings. They looked completely from the Human Brain perspective with reality based thinking of “drugs are bad, don’t do drugs.”  If it all worked like that we would be fine and the problem of drug addiction would no longer be an issue. It isn’t fine, though, because there is a second brain in the Limbic System at the very back of the head which is the Mammalian Brain.  This is the brain that we share with other mammals (see Chart 1). This brain mainly deals with emotions. 

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